Free Love Bites by Angela Knight Page A

you’d burn our balls good with one of those nasty jolts you love dishing out.” Cador curled his lip. “Not my idea of happy fun time.”
    She stiffened and glared. “If you accept my Oath, I’ll bloody well keep it.”
    “Yeah, right.”
    The skepticism on Cador’s face was to be expected. What stung was the way Marrok’s mirrored it. Worst of all was the wintery disbelief in Percival’s gaze.
    I’m losing them. I can’t lose them—they’re the only ones who can do what needs doing if my control fails.
“Fine. How about this, then.” Pointing at the coffee table before the knights, Morgana gestured, spilling a stream of sparks from her fingertips as she called the conjuration from her worktable. More sparks spilled as it materialized on the coffee table in front of Percival. “I’ve been working on this for months—it was a bitch to pull off, but I finally completed it a couple of weeks ago. Luckily we haven’t had a need for it yet, but the time will come.”
    Percival leaned back, frowning down at the metal circlet with its intricate swirl of magical symbols. “A collar.” He looked up at her with a dismissive flick of his gaze. “Very pretty.”
    “It’s far more than pretty, Percival. That collar is designed to block a Maja’s access to her powers.” She tilted her chin, mustered her most challenging smile. “If you accept my Oath and collar me, I’d effectively be powerless unless you chose to deactivate it for missions. I’ll be completely at your mercy.”
    *   *   *
    P ercival froze. And swallowed.
    Morgana stood before them, her lushly beautiful body barely clad in a red lace corset that clearly displayed her perfect breasts and hard nipples. A catlike smile curved her lips as she tilted her head, sending her waist-length black curls shifting around her creamy shoulders.
    He silently cursed the erection swelling behind the fly of his jeans. Leaning forward, Percival braced his elbows on his knees, hoping to keep those sharp green eyes of hers from spotting his cock-stand and going for the kill.
    The witch had always known how to make a man sit up and beg. Then she’d curl those long red fingernails around his balls and tie them in a knot.
    Marrok frowned and asked the question Percival hadn’t managed to think of, not with all his blood headed to his cock. “Something like that would be a piece of major magic. What the hell would be the point?”
    “It’s a way to control new Majae with Mageverse Fever,” Morgana explained, picking up the collar in her long, elegant fingers. She was talking about the ugly tendency of new witches to be driven mad by suddenly gaining the raw power of the Mageverse. “It prevents them from being able to draw on their full magic. A Court Seducer could collar the girl before sleeping with her the third time, so when Merlin’s Gift triggered, she wouldn’t be able to commit mayhem if she went insane. That’s not a minor consideration, given the number of Court Seducers who’ve been slain by insane Majae over the years. Not to mention the girls themselves.” Something grim slid through her green eyes. “I am tired of killing those children for something that isn’t their fault.”
    “Doesn’t that only delay the inevitable?” Percival asked. “You can’t cure Mageverse Fever; it’s their own power that drives those women insane. Unless you kept the Maja collared for the rest of her life . . .”
    Cador smirked. “Much as that might be interesting . . .”
    Percival ignored him. “. . . She’d try to destroy everything around her the moment you took the collar off.”
    Morgana leaned forward, her eyes going bright with enthusiasm. “But what if it’s the immediate onslaught of the Mageverse that drives the girls insane? What if the collar could let them have the power a bit at a time, allowing them to learn how to manage it? Perhaps that would keep them from going mad.”
    Marrok eyed her, then reached for the bottle of